Planer drive



Filed Oct. 21, 1944 3 Sheets-Sheet l Aprfl 1950 J. M WALTER 2,504,366

PLANER DRIVE I h IN V EN TOR.

J. M. WALTER April 18, 1950 PLANER DRIVE Filed Oct. 21, 1944 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 N WQ fit wiNVENTOR.

J. M. WALTER April 18, 1950 PLANER DRIVE a Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed 001:. 21, 1944 IJI IHI i 'atentecl Apr. 18, 195 6 "UNI S TATES rem cleric 2,504,366 IPLANER DRIVE por ation of Ohio Application October -21, 1944, Serial No.*559',70'7

(Cree- 's) A C aim 1 .My invention :relates to .drives .for metal planersend thelikeand .is directed toward an arrangement whereby .floor space will be conserved, .and-thecheavy. drivemotor for the table drivelocated in:the .,angle.he.tween the housin or column and the bed. The illustratedexample that ofiangopen side planer, although obviousiy double column machines will be equally applicable.

It haSfbGBAQDIODDSBG in the past to drive the rack on the under side of a planer table by means of a worm driyaiin which'the worm shaft is provided with a bearing in the bed at an angle to the length of the bed, thus permitting the location of the power motor and gearing for the worm shaft in -a-space savingposition such as employed in my invention.

.iS uch a;drive, however, requiresa slow speed shaft and a high torqueand .is not satisfactory inmany instances for that reason.

According to my invention, Iemploy a high speed shaft-which shaft is thus of low. torgue. Within the;;.bed of the planer I-locateaspeed ireduction drive which beginswith a beveled (preferably hypoid) gear which meshes with a beveled hypoid pinion i supported in bearings With-1n "the;bed, and provided ,with ;'-a llexibie scoupling to the end of the high speed shaft. This ;shaft is also connected to the motor shaft by :another flexible coupling so that it is a floating i ;shaft.

This arrangement permits me to locate the :motor for the high speed shaft in the angle between the housing or column and the bed of the planer, without critical problems of alignment, thus saving the floor space usually occupied by the standard drive motor for the table drive which is normally at the side of the column. and incidentally cutting down the number of gears in the table drive which in the normal or right angle drive, have been found necessary in the past.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective view showing the location of the drive motor with reference to the column or housing and the bed, showin the table in place.

Figure 2 is a plan view of the portion of the bed adjacent the column, showing the drive located therein; the drive motor, drive shaft bearing and the support for the drive pinion.

Figure 3 is a vertical section taken along the center axis of the drive shaft and drive pinion on a larger scale.

The illustrated example of my invention embodies a bed I, with ways 2 thereon, and a column '2 r hous n V sto engagethe ways thereof is the planer table 5, .which is ,drivenby a rackt, on its under side.

Thedrive-motor, thefcasing of which is shown at 'iis located in .the angle between the column and the.bed,.'so,as to conserve floorspace. The controls for speed and direction are part of the.

l ii ica eq ipmen b th n es a will 1 of standard character. ,From the ca'sing projects the shaft 9. The motor casing rests onthe floor and is bolted .tothell'oor.

"The shaft.Sisprovided'with a flexible coupling provided with a flexible'coupling ll to the drive pinion shaft i 3, in co-"ax'ial relation.

Locatedona pad 14 in the drive chamber of the'bed-is a support 15 forthe drive'pinion shaft iii. This support has spaced lateral wallswhich clear-the coupling 12 andmountsbearings i6 and lii for the spindle 'or shaft' l-3, in an inverted cup shapedportion thereof which overhangs a portion -.iof--- thehypoid :beveled .gear 6? of the On the spindle l3 between its bearings- 22. It is this bull wheel which engages the rack on the under side of the planer table. The shaft it is located properly to serve also as the drive shaft for the feed drive on the adjacent housing of the planer.

The two flexible couplings are illustrated as of like structure but various types are produced commercially and will serve the purpose. The one shown comprises two flanged heads and 2d keyed to the shafts to be connected. Between the heads lie a series of annular spring steel washers. The flanges are bolted by special headed bolts 26, to the annular assembly of spring annuli, the flanges of the heads being apertured to permit this.

Instead of so many reduction gears in the drive chamber, for small machines, the number can be cut down using the single hypoid gear to drive the spindle of the bull wheel pinion, a rearrangement and relocation of parts to accomplish this being apparent without additional drawings.

Mounted on the .bed, and with The use of spiral gears in the drive is not mandatory, nor the use of hypo'id pinion and gear for connecting in the floating shaft. As to the hypoid gears the present form of drive permits their use and their ability to run more smoothly than spiral beveled gears, and their better load carrying capacity adds materially to the excellence of the drive.

It is desirable, although not mandatory, to mount the hypoid drive pinion between bearings on its spindle rather than to have it overhang the bearings.

As compared to the worm drive noted above, and generally termed a Sellers drive, the floating shaft in the present structure must withstand only to A of the torque in operation, as applied to this previous construction. The right angle shaft construction, which is the standard drive of today, uses seven gears between the drive shaft and the bull gear in order to locate the bull gear properly with relation to the point of tool application and clear the planer side heads at the same time with the drive shaft. Such a gear train uses some gears with no reduction and such practically idler gears in heavy duty reversing drives such as planers, are simply sources of trouble. In my present drive there are at the most only five gears in the train to the bull gear, each a reduction gear.

With my construction I have found that the motor alignment is not critical even for the smoothest performance. A one degree variation in angle between the motor shaft and the drive gear pinion is readily permissible with the illustrated form of flexible coupling. With such flexible couplings are universal joints, which would be satisfactory with my invention, the alignment of the floating shaft would be subject to wide variation, The motor vehicles of today use universal joints for their drive shafts which are satisfactory in my construction. The type of flexible coupling illustrated in the described example was selected because it requires no lubrication and is quite free from developing back lash in use, but yet protects against simple misalignment.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In combination a planer having a bed and a worktable reciprocable thereon, said table having a rack on its under side, and said planer having a column on at least one side of said bed, a drive for said table comprising a motor disposed in the angle between said bed and said column, said motor having a shaft connection entering said bed at an angle, a train of reduction gears in said bed connecting said shaft connection with said rack, said shaft connection comprising a rigid shaft flexibly connected directly to said motor, and flexibly connected to the first gear in said train of reduction gears, said shaft constituting the high speed low torque side of the drive.

2. A drive according to claim 1, wherein said train of reduction gears comprises not more than five gears.

3. The combination of claim 1 wherein said shaft connection is free of bearings between said flexible connections, thereby compensating for misalignment between said motor and train of reduction gears at the said high speed low torque side of the train.

4. The combination of claim 1 wherein said motor is mounted independently of said train of reduction gears.

JOHN M. WALTER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

